Updated 10:55 AM EDT, Thu, Mar 28, 2024

Little Chance of $4 Billion for Immigration Reform Unless Plan for Deportation Included

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The U.S. House won’t support giving President Barack Obama his nearly $4 billion request to fund the response to the undocumented child immigrant surge at the United States border, Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers said.

Calling the amount "too much," Rogers made it clear that the House will not be supportive of the $3.7 million request to fund any response to the humanitarian crisis unless the plan includes a deportation clause.

“There are pieces of it that need to be dealt with immediately and that’s what we are working on,” Rogers said.

He did promise that the $615 million request for fighting wildfires will be addressed, however.

In order to make a deal on funding, Democrats may have to accept the clause for speedier deportations, and it appears that the proposal may be something Democratic leaders are willing to accept.

Republican Senators John McCain and Jeff Flake of Arizona are proposing an amendment to a 2008 law that gives legal protections to immigrant children from anywhere but Mexico and Canada, the two countries sharing borders with the U.S.

Although controversial in its quick movement toward deportation, it may be a selling point for both parties in order to expedite the funding.

A number of Democratic leaders are in support of the proposed changes, including House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, who who said yesterday the policy change Republicans seek is “not a deal breaker.”

The President has also said he is not in opposition to proposed changes, although they were not included in the proposal sent to lawmakers yesterday.

Not every Democratic leader is in support of the proposed changes to immigration law, though.

Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont, chairman of the chamber’s Judiciary Committee, has voiced his concern over such changes.

“I can assure you that I will fight tooth and nail changes” to the law, he said at a hearing yesterday.

“When you have an eight- or nine-year-old girl who’s being raped by gangs” and escaping violence, “I’m not sure Americans would all feel like we should immediately send them back,” Leahy said.

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